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tv   Happening Now  FOX News  October 2, 2012 11:00am-1:00pm EDT

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academy awards. he calls his late gig, quote, an overwhelming privilege. so i doubt this is going to be johnny carson or billy crystal or anything along those lines. bill: he'll be the most talked-about guy before and after the oscars. danger. see you tomorrow. martha: buy, guys, see you tomorrow. "happening now" starts right now. jenna: this is a fox news alert, a manhunt is underway for the killer or killers of a u.s. border patrol agent. border patrol officials confirming that an agent was shot and killed overnight, another agent sustained nonlife threatening injuries. this happened just north of the arizona border of naco not far from where brian terry was shot and killed back in december of 2010. we're going to have a live report on all the breaking details in just a moment. but first, right now some brand new stories and breaking
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news this hour. gregg: that's right. we are counting down to the first presidential faceoff. president obama, governor mitt romney cramming for their first debate tomorrow night in denver. and new questions about whether the president's health care law could soon be back before the u.s. supreme court. judge andrew napolitano weighs in. and jaw-dropping pictures you won't want to miss. wait until you see what cameras caught when discovery tv intentionally crashed a 727 jet liner in an investigation, where's the safest place for you to sit when you fly? we're going to show you, all "happening now." gregg: hello, everybody, i'm gregg jarrett in for jon scott. jenna: hi, everybody, i'm jenna lee. brand new polling out today giving us a snapshot of how the race for the white house is shaping up on the 'of the first -- on the eve of the first
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presidential debate. the latest quinnipiac poll showing the president leading among likely voters, and that matters. [laughter] take a look at this poll, this same poll shows a much wider gap among women voters. the president holding a commanding lead, 56-38% among likely women voters nationwide. so why is governor romney trailing among women, and can he actually close the gap that's so important here? sabrina schafer is executive director of the independent women's forum, a nonprofit group that supports a lot of conservative principles. so, sabrina, why is that gap so big? >> well, i think that we have to be careful before we jump to conclusions. women make up more than 50% of the electorate, ander the not a 40 among juice voting bloc. we're talking about urban, rural, married, single, young, old. the reality is in 2008 mccain won married women. the problem was that obama won single women by 45 points,72-27.
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so single women are a critical voting bloc for president obama, and they are the basis for the war on women, for sandra fluke, for the life of julia. the question is, is that going to be enough to win him the white house again in november? jenna: so let's talk about those specific blocs and how you speak to them as a candidate. kimberly strases el of "the wall street journal" had an interesting article on this on friday, and she argued that it's not the democrats ea platform that's more attractive to women, it's that women appreciate that they're being spoken to directly. sabrina, do you think that's a problem that the gop has? >> yeah, i think there are a lot of women in the middle, um, who don't necessarily identify with that gender feminism and the pandering that's going on in the left, but they don't necessarily identify with the social conservativism of the right x. republicans are less comfortable sort of playing gender politics. the thing that we try to everyone ice at iwf is that
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men's and women's interests are in conflict. we don't live in a vacuum. it's what's good for all americans. and if romney can hit home the fact that we all want lower health care costs, lower energy costs, that we all need economic growth and job creation, i think then he has a real shot at the white house. jenna: is there still time? >> that's the question. [laughter] i think for any candidate, and this is my opinion, but i think you have to be specific. i think that you can't be wishy washy. jenna: is that what you're going to be looking for in the debate, for example, something that could sway women voters and close that gap a little bit? >> yeah. i think they tried a little bit during the rnc and were not as successful. i thought it was interesting how he talked about all of the very strong women he's been surrounded by and he's surrounded himself by in his life personally and in government and in the professional world, but i think he needs to be more specific. he doesn't need to be scared to come out and explain why something like the lily
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ledbetter act is a bad policy for women. i think he needs to say, look, the wage gap is a myth, let me tell you why, and let me tell you how valuable women are to the work force. if he does that, i think women will at the very least feel as though he's talking to them. jenna: that's very interesting. as a mom, do you think that the republican party in the years to come will be a party that you can see your daughters being spoken to directly, or is this an issue that's evolving, something that it's going to have to confront over the next several years, not just in the next election? >> it's going to be a long time coming. i think they really need to begin to tie those core issues, things like energy prices and how that connects to the cost of milk to women. i think they need to remember that women are soaring to the top of every educational and professional field out there, the beyond all idea that they we talked to about birth control, um, that they want to be talked to as if they are wards of the state is absurd. and if the republican party can manage to talk to women the way they talk about men, that they care about the real issues that
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matter to all of us, then i think that's a party for my daughters and for my son. jenna: that's right. ten months old, right? he's little, he still counts. >> yeah, i don't know. [laughter] jenna: sabrina, thank you very much. some important be insight, we appreciate have having you on as always. >> thanks so much. jenna: here's a little context just to show you how important this is. 69.6 million women voted in 2008, 56% came out in support of the president. now, if you break that down, that's 38.9 million women who voted for the last time around. what will they do this time? so romney needs to cut into this margin. according to our brain room researchers, every 1% he can get into that margin equals about 700,000 votes, and every vote matters. gregg: it surely does. we learned that in 2000. all right, new information just in. a top official at the department of veterans affairs has resigned in connection with a spending
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scandal that's rocking yet another government agency. federal investigators say the va wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on extravagant training conferences in world -- ord, florida, last year. this comes just months after the gsa came under fire for lavish spending at a conference in 2010. doug mckelway is following it arrive in washington. doug? >> gregg, one of the features of that conference in orlando last year was the presentation of a parody film, a takeoff on the classic "patton." it was designed to motivate va employees. here's a snippet of the film. >> one of the worse mistakes you can make in carrying out your mission is getting the idea in your head that stability is a virtue. stability is not a virtue, it's a trap. it means you're holding your own, you're standing still. >> reporter: the film goes on with interviews of va employees and beneficiaries.
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it cost $52,000 to produce that little 15-minute film. it was shown only twice. yet that price tag is only a fraction of the cost of the overall conference. the va billed taxpayers over $5 million for the conference, that's more than five times what that notorious xsa conference -- gsa conference in vegas cost. what's more, just as with the gsa, the va inspect general's report found investigators were lousy at keeping track of their expenses. quote: >> reporter: a day before this damaging ig report was released, the va's top human resources official, assistant secretary john accept el said da, turned in his resignation saying in a state, quoting now: i resigned because i did not want to be a
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distraction for the administration and the va especially as they continue to work each day to address the needs of our nation's veterans. and secretary shinseki promises to hold anybody involved in organizing the conference accountable. the house veterans affairs committee and the house oversight and government reform committee are also conducting investigations. gregg? gregg: five million for a conference in orlando when you could do it a whole lot cheaper in a teleconference. just pick up the phone. >> reporter: so true. gregg: thanks very much, doug. jenna: we have this fox news alert, a judge postponing in pennsylvania some controversial voter identification requirements. they've been described as the toughest in the nation. and the judge has said that he is postponing the requirement, ordering the state not to enforce it in this year's presidential election. now, we're only a couple weeks away from election day, so as this judge rules, this may well stand for the next several
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weeks. judge napolitano's going to join us shortly, break down what exactly is going on in pennsylvania and how that might also apply to some other states that are facing some of the same controversy over voter id requirements. more on that in a moment. in the meantime, this just in. new documents show security concerns at the u.s. consulate in benghazi before last month's terror attacks. the u.s. ambassador to libya and three other americans were killed, they were murdered in this attack, and now it appears contractors were warning about security lapses, and those warnings were being ignored. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has more for us from d.c. today. catherine, what are we learning about in these new documents? >> reporter: well, jenna, thank you. in this letter to the secretary of state, hillary clinton, the house oversight committee alleges 12 incidents that show the deteriorating security situation on the ground in libya. the reported incidents include a libyan security force so afraid
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for its own safety that family members urged the guards to quit in the weeks leading up to the murders. also threats specifically targeting ambassador stevens. the letter reads in part, quote. >> reporter: fox news first reported friday that the physical security was so substandard at the benghazi consulate that it required a waiver signed off in washington by the secretary of state or the head of foreign building operations. a state department spokeswoman said there would be no comment on that wafer until their internal investigation was complete. jenna: the drip, drip, drip of information continues now weeks later after this event. any response on capitol hill now to the administration's latest claims about what's going on and the attack as it stands? >> reporter: well, in an interview with fox news, the head of the house intelligence committee, republican congressman mike rogers, suggesting the obama
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administration politicized the intelligence in the immediate aftermath of the attack to fit a convenient storyline that it was spontaneous and not premeditated terrorism. >> i argue the administration made some serious mistakes when they highlighted the video, escalated its credibility to the presidential level and then took it on tv in pakistan with u.s. taxpayer dollars. >> reporter: rogers, who told fox one day after the attack that it was, indeed, terrorism, saying the statement from the director of national intelligence on friday appeared to be an effort to obscure the facts. >> part of the problem is this circling of the wagons that is really concerning about this. again, americans need to understand the truth, and the facts are what the facts are. and the intelligence is what the intelligence is. >> reporter: fox news asked an administration official why it chose ambassador rice to discuss the sensitive intelligence details on five sunday talk shows over current career
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intelligence officials including adviser john brennan, national security adviser donilon, james clapper or the cia director, david petraeus. an administration official told fox they had lost an ambassador, so to them it made the most sense to put out a senior diplomat to speak to that tragedy. jenna: catherine, thank you. >> reporter: you're welcome. gregg: a former college professor sentenced to life in prison for killing three of her colleagues. now she wants to go on trial for the death of her own brother. that's right, she wants the trial more than 25 years after the fact. what a judge is saying about amy bishop. and a major scare mid flight forcing one airline to ground several planes. wait until you hear what kept passengers out of their seats, literally. >> my son's seat, it was kind of like rickety, almost falling off, and we were trying to push it in and hold it in longer. [ male announcer ] there are only so many foods
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gregg: and right now here are some crime headlines we're keeping a close eye on. a former university of alabama professor requesting a trial in the death of her own brother. prosecutors recently decided not to prosecute her, but amy bishop insists she wants to prove that the 1986 shooting was all accidental. bishop was recently sentence inside a separate case to life in prison for killing three of her colleagues. the family of missing baby lisa irwin are thanking supporters today. tomorrow marks one year since the then-11-month-old was last
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seen in her crib. right now a manhunt in the forests of new york, police are searching for 73-year-old eugene palmer. the experienced outdoorsman is accused of killing his daughter-in-law last week. jenna: well, american airlines inspecting eight of its planes after two flights were diverted not because of weather, not because of other things, but because seats came loose mid flight. seats that passengers were trying to sit in. julie banderas is live in new york city were -- with more. what happened here? >> reporter: seems like american airlines is trying to do damage control. reports of loose seats over the course of three days, and according to "the new york post," there was a third incident last week. as a result, american airlines has grounded eight 757s to investigate why the seats are coming loose onboard. passengers got quite a scare over the weekend when an american flight was forced to divert to new york on saturday after a row of seats came
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unbolted mid flight. and then on monday it happened again, believe it or not, a flight headed from jfk to miami had to be turned back after loose seats were discovered. here's a transcript of one pilot reporting the problem to air traffic control. quote: >> reporter: well, luckily, all jets did land without incident, and i now the federal aviation administration and the airline are boast investigating, jenna. jenna: lucky they didn't hit turbulence or anything at the beginning. does the airline know why this is happening? >> reporter: well, it seems there's a lot of different explanations. american is releasing statements saying there could be a possible issue with a certain model of seats and how they fit into the tracking used to secure them onto the plane floor. company officials say the seats were installed by american airlines' maintenance and maintenance contractors, but add
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thish sue does not seem to be tied to any one facility or group. meantime, the transportation workers union blames the problem on work outsourced to nonunion shops. >> it's the first one of american's outsourced, and we're seeing it in the past couple weeks since this has begun, several aircraft have come in with problems. >> reporter: not the only issue the airline is facing, american filed for bankruptcy protection back in november and is currently in the middle of a contract tug-of-war with its pilots they say have gone without a contract for six years now. so a lot of turbulence up in the skies for american airlines. back to you. jenna: seems like quite an ugly situation, one of the questions we're going to be asking our panel is does this mean maybe we shouldn't fly american? >> reporter: good question. jenna: julie, thank you. gregg: if they forgot a bolt somewhere, makes you wonder, oops, did they forget the engine? jenna: how's that chair? gregg: i'm not going anywhere.
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a murder trial is underway for a woman accused of killing a nursing student in a jealous rage. and a major ruling that could effect millions of voters in the state of pennsylvania, judge andrew napolitano is here to explain. he's the guy who always has the answers, isn't he? it's amazing. and here he comes. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?
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gregg: a murder trial underway for a woman accused of killing a nursing student that she believed was having an affair with the father of her child.
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rick folbaum is live with more. >> the interesting thing as the trial gets started is that the defense is not saying their client didn't do it. they are saying merely that it was a crime of passion, that she just snapped which would make it a manslaughter case not first-degree murder. they say the woman was consumed with jealousy and rage when she murdered michelle lee in a parking garage last year. she was convinced lee was having an affair with the father of her child and carefully planned out the killing, finding out lee's schedule so she would know where her target would be. lee was a nursing student who disappeared about a year ago. local police pieced together the mystery and arrested the woman that september, a few months later. ten days after the arrest lee's remains were found on a path in a local canyon outside of san francisco. in opening statements defense attorneys telling the jury that a smoldering july just see called esteban to lose it. text messages will play a bill role in 24 tria this trial as
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prosecutors will show threatening tex from esteban, both to her child and to lee, telling her husband that michelle lee had dug her own grave by having an affair with him. gregg: the old heat of passion sudden impulse defense, sometimes it works. we'll wait and see. jenna: fox news alert. early voting begins today in the key battleground state of ohio. there is also some breaking news on a tough new voter i.d. requirement in pennsylvania. a judge is now blocking that new requirement, ordering it not be enforced in the presidential election. democrats have mounted a furious opposition to this law that requires each voter to show a valid photo i.d. before filling out a ballot. republicans say it's necessary to prevent election fraud. at lowe's for now it's no least for now it's not going to happen in the state of philadelphia.
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judge andrew napolitano is a judicial analyst. why now so close to the election. >> it's a great question. the judge who ruled today a couple of months ago upheld the legislation and should it could be enforced. those who khal hedge challenged it appealed the decision to the supreme court of pennsylvania. the court took a few months and it ruled that the court needs to re-examine whether the enforcement of the legislation is written. you must have a state-issued i.d. card in order to vote or we won't let your vote count. whether enforcement of that law would cause people to lose their right to vote. in looking at whether that would happen he stated this morning he feared, no one knows for sure, he feared that it would cause people to lose their right to vote. therefore, he's going to let the state ask you for your i.d., but if you don't have one, or don't produce one you still get the right to vote. then he's going to hold a hearing after election day on
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whether this legislation can proceed onto affect other votes in pennsylvania next year. jenna: it's back to business as usual in pennsylvania to the way voting has been done in the past but it's not yet over for the challenge to have voter i.d. be a requirement in the future. >> precisely. what the judge did today is what we call a temporary injunction. he has stopped the enforcement for a short period of time to take it beyond this presidential election. but he may allow it to be enforced for elections in pennsylvania in 2013. again the only difference when you go to the polls in pennsylvania next month as opposed to when you went last year is they will ask you for an i.d. if you don't have it you still get to vote. somewhat of a waste of time asking for it. jenna: with the election process this time around will the judge use any antidotes, evidence, anything that happens in this election process as part of his ruling for whether or not this is permanent? how will this election play from
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either side. >> i think he probably will. if the challengers to the statute can show that all of the hoopla over the legislation caused people to stay home, who otherwise would go and vote the public policy of pennsylvania is that people should vote so that is a bad thing and that would help him to invalidate the statute. if they can't show that anybody's right to vote was impaired by this partial enforcement, if you will, of the statute, then there is no evidence to push him in that direction. to add another level to this. there probably will be an a paoefl the decision he came down with this morning, back to the pennsylvania supreme court. they have a very short period of time in which to rule. jenna: can they actually overturn his ruling boy election day? >> yes, they can. they have a procedure whereby they can rule in a couple of days and they may very well say, you know what we are going to just let this play out, or we don't like what he did we are going to change it to this extent. jenna: we'll see what happens in the state of pennsylvania. i just want to ask you a quick
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question when it comes to a national law this affects us all, the healthcare overall. we heard from the supreme court yesterday that they had an interest in a particular case that had to do with a christian college that doesn't want to enforce parts of the healthcare law because they feel in conflict witness. i hope i got that all right, judge. what is the supreme court doing and what does this mean for the healthcare law in general? >> back in june the supreme court upheld the individual mandate, which requires that everyone have health insurance. while that was going on the challenge to the individual mandate, this christian school, liberty university in virginia challenged what is called the employer mandate. that forces all employers of a certain number of people or more to provide healthcare coverage for those employers that covers abortion, contraceptive services and out that na euthnasia.
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the college said we don't believe in any of those three things. if we purchase a healthcare insurance for our employees it goes against our values. the supreme court wants to hear that challenge whether or not the employer man date owe opposed to the personal mandate violates the first amendment. jenna: if they show an interest does that mean we see a case any time soon or could this be years away? >> if the supreme court had left these challenges work their way up you're talking years away. what they did yesterday will probably get it to the supreme court next year. the answer to your question is no, just because they have shown an interest in something doesn't mean they are going to affect the outcome but they probably won't do this if they weren't interested in the merits. jenna: thank you, judge for crisscrossing. >> a lot of crisscrossing. jenna: you were very clear. i would expect nothing less of course. judge napolitano, great to have you. gregg: new details on our future
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going forward inside afghanistan as we learn that washington may be abandoning hopes for a peace deal with the taliban. what is next for us inside the war-torn country? jennifer griffin is here to break down the details. plus, on the eve of the first presidential debate both president obama and governor mitt romney are hard at work on their final preps. we'll have an update from the campaign trail next.
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gregg: there are plans to hold peace talk with the taliban and they've now collapsed, this as nato commander's try to find a new way to boost stability in the region as forces begin to head home. national security correspondent jennifer griffin has the details from the pentagon. how seriously did the u.s. military take these peace talks with the taliban. >> not very. this was essentially a
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state-department-led idea from with some backing from the white house and the president's national security advisers over at the white house when richard holbrooke was still alive as ambassador and envoy to pakistan he backed the idea because many military commander's believed you could not shoot yourself out of this war, out of the war in afghanistan. the pentagon also never believed that they could negotiate he with elements loyal to mullah omar or the a cane the aquani network. the pentago taliban doesn't specialize in talking but in shooting. they were willing to give it a chance but they didn't really believe, many of the generals i've spoken to that it would get off the ground. gregg: what are officials saying about where the talks are heading in. >> what weiree hearing is that the real snag came when the pentagon and also in congress
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there were -- the real snag is when they would not agree to release certain taliban prisoners in guantanamo bay in exchange for sergeant bea beaubirgdahl which is the only prisoner of worst held in afghanistan. when they won't agree to that the taliban negotiators felt they were let down and they did not trust hamid karzai who they said was a corrupt puppet. the u.s. was not able to offer anything tangible to the taliban. hamid karzai gave this statement. >> terrorism has not gone away. it has increased. >> now it seems the administration is realizing that it's going to be increasingly difficult for them to negotiate
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with the taliban which was going to be a key part of the exit strategy, gregg. gregg: jennifer griffin live at the pentagon, thanks. jenna: we'll see how that issue potentially comes up in the debates. the countdown is certainly on for the first debate between the president and governor romney. both candidates are going through final debate preparations before meeting face-to-face tomorrow night. the president spending the day with his staff in nevada, governor romney already in colorado where we find our campaign carl cameron live in denver. carl, it's been said that governor romney has a lot riding on these debates. what are you hearing about his prep? is he going for a knockout punch if you will? >> reporter: well the romney campaign would really prefer their knockout punch to come on election day. we are 35 days exactly from that now, five weeks from the day. with the debate tomorrow mr. romney is hoping to put this into the context of sort of a comprehensive approach gliding into election day, or rather charge into it. his aides yesterday said his first debate is a big
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opportunity for him to introduce himself to the country. they realize there are three more presidential debates and a vice presidental debate in this final one-month period w. that said there are a whole series of criticisms that mitt romney has been honing against the president for weeks an sampled a little bit of it last night for a denver audience upon arrival in the city to a crowd of 5500. >> we know where the president's pathway lead, because we are on it. we've seen it for four years. we've seen the number of people on food stamps go from 32 million to 47 million. 15million more people having fallen into poverty and needing food stamps. one out of six americans now in poverty. 23million americans looking nor a job. >> reporter: so in addition to facts like that which mr. romney will roll out in tomorrow night's debate there is a great deal about sort of stage craft and his personality, how he shows himself up, as well as
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president obama. everybody is looking for gaffes and z ii ngers. the romney campaign has been criticized for honing their zingers. they want to make the case that four more years of the obama administration is four more years the country can't afford. president obama saying that mitt romney and the republicans are offering the same kind of politics that get us into this mess in the first place. gregg: santita jackson joins us and brad blakeman joins us, former deputy assistant to george w. bush. santita let me start with you. americans are very unhappy with the economy, the president says he's unhappy too. is his challenge to explain how the next four years would be any different? and if you look at his convention speech i'm not sure there is any difference. >> you know i think that his great challenge is the same challenge that governor romney faces tomorrow night, which is to be relaysable an rerelatable
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and likable. likability really does matter. gregg: you don't think people really want specifics, tell me mr. president how the next four years is any different. >> you know, gregg you have to balance style with substance. the fact is they'll have to run against their narrative in a time of great economic want. you've got a very, very wealthy man who is running. i'm not saying he can't relate to the poor but governor romney is going to have to do that. president obama is someone who is prove sore kwral and known for his excellence. gregg: insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. the president has been described in past debates as no drama obama. and that is a compliment by the way. columnist jerry sibe in the "wall street journal" says that governor romney needs to counter that by creating his own drama. i'll quote jerry e. did that on at least one occasion during the primary season when in a high
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profile debate in florida he tphroers flee tk defended both his wealth and the way he acquired it and mocked former representative newt gingrich's dream of building a colony on the moon. you know, what brad that was the night, remember that night, that really ended gingrich's run and it cleared the way for romney's victoria tree. does governor romney tomorrow night need to pull off similar drama? >> i think he's got to be forceful, direct, yet respectful to the president. i happen to believe substance triumphs style every time. we saw the president recently get rattled when a univision presenter questioned the president respectfully but directly on immigration. the president was clearly annoyed. and i think romney to be effective must go on offense. it's not enough to say how bad things are in america because if it wasn't for bad news the president won't be making news on the economy or anything else. we all know how bad things are. romp knee has to tell how good things can be under his direction an has to be specific
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on policy. gregg: santita in the rare moment when the president actually holds a news conference and we have video of one of his news conferences he's forced to defend himself with vigorous questions from the reporters, and he sometimes really bristles at the questions, becomes kurt or aeu brace i have. listen to charles krauthammer on special report. here is. >> i think his one week point is that he is thin skinned. you occasionally will see it in a press conference. if romney can manage to get under his skin in some way i think that actually happened in 08 in one or two of the clinton debates i think it could puncture that aura that obama has. gregg: remember that debate. he was accused of being smug with hillary clinton when he said, you're likable enough, hillary. he's got to be careful, right. >> that was a regrettable moment. i think that he has got to -- that's why i said likability, relate built, very, very important. he cannot be the smartest guy in
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the room, and i think that he must go on offense. he must talk about how bad things are because i have to tell you brad and gregg i don't think that people have known just how bad things are. joe sieve stiglitz four years ago said these two wars cost us $3 trillion. we are still hearing billion dollar figures. i think if they are both how honest how deep this hole is we can come up with solution has will get us out of it. gregg: you think romney needs to attack but sometimes when do you that you make yourself less likable don't you? >> reagan did it quite effectively against gym recarter. gregg: he's an actor. >> by being a little tongue and cheek and being a little bit of levity in the attack. i think romney certainly has enough ammunition against this president. he must be selective but he must look him in the eye when he attacks and when he is attacked. the president is going to have to deflect the offense coming at him and he's going to be very defensive, why? because the president has a record that he has to defend. >> tell us what you're for not
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what you're against. i think that's what americans want. >> good to see you both. >> god bless, have a great one. jenna: what is the best seat in an airplane in the event of a plane crash? where are you most likely to survive? an incredible experiment gives new insight into what happens when a plain crashes. researchers send a full size passenger plane into the ground and the findings are fascinating. the results next.
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jenna: new details coming into our newsroom about a growing peanut butter recall over concerns of salmonella. rick folbaum has the story. we are just into the school year, rick, pb and j. >> reporter: it was limited to peanut butter and almonday butter sold at trader joe's. we can add target, whole foods, fresh and easy, stop and shop, giant foods. there are many others. peanut butts and other nut products made with crops from sunland inc all being pulled off of store shelves. the centers for disease control and prevention says there have been 30 cases of salmonella in 19 different states traced to the trader joe's peanut butter. the expanded recall is for other sunland products manufactured on the same equipment and could also be contaminated. we are talking about peanut butt per, almond butt per, cashew
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butter, tahini and other blanched and roasted products. if you have any of those products steak it back to the store or throw it away. it's a long list, jenna so we've put them all on the "happening now" home page at foxnews.com. beam should check it out. jenna: that is a good idea, rick, thank you. gregg: check it out. for the first time ever we get an inside look at the cabin of a passenger jet as it is intentionally crashed into the desert, the frightening pictures and what they tell us about air safety. you're not going to believe this. wow.
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gregg: hang onto your hats, a television first, an explosive experiment and we mean that in so many different ways, the
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discovery channel deliberately crashing a boeing 727 jetliner into the desert to see what happens when a plane goes down and determine the safest places to sit on board, with dozens of cameras rolling inside and out. joining me now is survivability expert tom bart. great stuff we've seen the video. tell us how you set this whole thing up, and i presume the pilots jumped out in the nick of time out the back. >> the pilots were a okay they parachuted out. our job was to really instrument the whole airplane with a whole bang of cameras and sensors so we could learn from the experiment. >> what did you find out? >> we found out that really it's a natural airplane environment. we could see a real crash very different from a laboratory. we were able to collect the full event that will help design seats and interiors for safer aircraft in the future. gregg: what happened to some of the dummies on the inside? >> the front of the airplane was completely destroyed, the nose was destroyed. gregg: really.
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>> yep. and then a little bit further back there was potential for severe injury. in the middle moderate injury, and in the tail you would have been good if you were wearing a seatbelt. >> since the front of the plane basically got blown-out does that mean the fatal seats were what, rows one through seven in. >> yeah, about row 4 to row 10 was completely destroyed. gregg: wow. and seat 7a was catapulted straight out of the plane? >> like you might see in this kind of thing there was a giant debris field, several of the rows spread across the desert. gregg: some of the dummies were seatbelted but seated straight up, right? >> we had a brace-position dummy, some in the normal sit up position and some that were unbelted. gregg: and the people who were bent over, or the dummies bent over with like their head covered and so forth, they did the best? >> yeah, because the brace position dumb knee di dummy did
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the best. we did see ankle injuries. it depends on how you put your feet that. could be true for any of the dummies depending on how you had your feet. the idea is to have a small distance between you and the seat in front of you so you don't develop a velocity and high impact forces. >> if you have are your seat straight up all kinds of spinal injuries also happen, right? >> yeah we saw severe spinal injuries as well. gregg: simulated a woman holding an infant on her lap which is by the way how a lot of folks with babies travel. what happened? >> well, we didn't -- on the aircraft experiment itself we didn't have a lap-held dummy, we did a separate test with that. but what can happen is with the high g-forces you can't hold onto that child and they basically fly through the cabin. >> we are seeing a lot of debris here, is that one of the biggest dang stphers. >> it can be a danger for evacuating. we saw a lot of stuff come down from the roof, wires, and the passenger service units and things like in a. yeah it can be an issue if
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you're trying to get out. gregg: one of the other things you learned from this is you got to get out fast, right? so the closer you are to an emergency exit, survivability increases? >> you want to know where the survivability exits are. you have to be of sound mind and body. you don't want to be too injured when you try to get out of that airplane fast. gregg: what surprised you about this if anything. >> the one thing that really surprised me was the whole composite of the data from start to finish. i was also surprised by the timing. we were actually able to measure the impact loads as they transferred from one section of the airplane through the next. in little millisecond, with high resolution you could really see a lot and it was great to see. gregg: you know, i read somewhere that passengers in the tail of the plane actually have a 40% higher survivability rate than everybody else. is that true? >> well it's true in general that any vehicle moving forward, if it's going to crash they are
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going to have higher forces up at the front. exact numbers on percentages depends on what kinds of accidents you're looking at and what kind of statistics you're looking at. gregg: incredible videotape. we are going to get to see more of it. tom barth survivability expert. great stuff. thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me. gregg: you can tune into the discovery premiere of curiosity plain crash this sunday 9:00 eastern, 8 central. this is something i've got to see. check it out. jenna: great tips gregg. still don't want to be in a plane crash, right? it doesn't change. gregg: i'd lick to avoid that. jenna: still don't want to try it, in the back, by the bathroom with a seatbelt on. gregg: don't be in the bathroom. jenna: in the bathroom doesn't count. the president and governor mitt romney hunker down for one last day of prep before the first big presidential debate. what we can expect when both candidates take the stage tomorrow night. we actually have a debate coach who is going to answer all the questions about the secrets of being a good debater.
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an intense manhunt underway for the person who killed a u.s. border patrol agent right near the spot where agent brian terry was murdered in 2010. the details on that next.
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gregg: a pennsylvania court blocking voter id law from going into effect right before the election in november, it happened in pennsylvania, and the deputy secretary of state there issuing the following statement just moments ago.
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quote: we are pleased that today's court decision upholds pennsylvania's voter id law under today's ruling, voter id will be implemented, but on a different time frame. this november all voters will be asked to show photo id when they vote, though it will not be required. this is, essentially, the same voting process we implemented in the spring primary. in the meantime, we are reviewing all legal options. well, this story is far from over. eric shawn has been following it from the beginning, and he's going to have a live report in just a few moments. >> reporter: we're here in the "happening now" control room, and some brand new stories we're working on right here on "happening now," including a preview of the big denver debate that's tomorrow night, the first of three faceoffs between the president and governor romney. what both men are doing today ahead of tomorrow night's rocky mountain meeting. also, one border agent dead, another wounded after a shooting right near the spot where agent
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brian terry was murdered almost two years ago. we'll have an update on the search for suspects now. and then also this hour the case of the moving seats on the american airlines plane? is that airline safe to fly? we'll discuss it with a former ntsb official. all of that and breaking news as the second hour of "happening now" starts right now. gregg: high stakes in the mile high city. the candidates gearing up for the first presidential debate tomorrow night in denver. welcome to the second hour of "happening now," i'm gregg jarrett. jenna: and i'm jenna lee. a big night for really all americans tomorrow night, hopefully, you're ready for the big event as voters look forward to finally seeing both candidates on the same stage at the same time and hear what they have to say to one another and to us, right? governor mitt romney is hoping to turn turn the tide with a topnotch performance, turning the tide meaning we've seen the polls moving in the direction of
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the president. so just weeks before the election, this is so important for both candidates. mitt romney's already in denver, he's getting ready for tomorrow's big faceoff as folks in denver get ready for, really, a nightmare traffic situation. major highway is set to shut down during the debate, right in the middle of rush hour traffic. parking at the university of denver also a huge challenge, drivers there are being told to move their cars to make room for the campaigns and security and the fuse media as well. -- the news media as well, so we're part of the problem. it's a good excuse to stay home and watch the debate. gregg: stay in bed all day long. jenna: president obama's not going to arrive this denver until tomorrow. he's in nevada getting ready for the debate, and that's where we find ed henry who's used to traffic jams and everything that comes with traveling with the president. how is the president's debate prep going? what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, jenna, i hope they've got a parking spot for me and my producer sarah, we're going to denver tonight.
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but john kerry is playing mitt romney in these mock sessions. he's been spotted in the president's hotel, reading glasses on, pile of papers in front of him as if he's really studying hard, trying to press the president, push some of his buttons in these debate sessions. the president trying to project a kind of calm, cool attitude, i suppose, carrying some pizzas in to his volunteers' office here in the local area in nevada yesterday to talk to them, fire up the troops, if you will. and then the president picked up a cell phone and started calling some of the volunteers. take a listen. >> that was very nice, you know? we're, you know, although basically they're keeping me indoors all the time. it's a drag. [laughter] they're making me do my homework. [laughter] >> reporter: the president says he's doing his homework there. interesting because what his staff is trying to do in their conversations with us over the last 24 or 48 hours is really down play expectations by say,
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boy, the president hasn't debated in four years, mitt romney got all that practice in the republican primaries that went on and on. you get the idea that they're trying to lowball expectations for the president even though we all know, this is a pretty good public speaker. he talks in long sound bites, but this is somebody who's pretty polished. jenna: this' certainly the truth, ed. you know, the president is holed up, as he says, inside, you have the freedom to roam the streets of las vegas, right? you get to talk to a lot of voters out there. this is a key battleground state. what are they telling you? >> reporter: well, it's interesting because the president, as you mentioned, he's in las vegas, about 20 miles from the strip here at a resort. celine dion's got a home there, other big stars, so it's pretty luxurious. down the street in henderson, you know, it's been pretty hard hit with foreclosures. we saw an abandoned shopping center yesterday, people who are unemployed, so we went to a job center and talked to a man who said, look n a way i don't care who's the next president because
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i just want to find a job, but he said he will be watching the debate and had something interesting to say. take a listen. >> be i'm a democrat, so i'm leaning towards obama, of course. and if mitt romney has a great plan to get me back to work, to what i'm good at and what i know i can do, then i'm all for it. but it all depends. this debate will kind of tell me a lot about mitt romney and obama. >> reporter: he'll be tuning in, a lot of people tuning in, obviously, to fox news to watch this debate. what's interesting is that man went on to tell us that he was disappointment inside that 47% video -- disappointed in that 47% video with romney. but on the other hand, he said if romney can have a strong debate performance, he'll give him a chance. so maybe that video's hurting him, but some voters are still telling us they have an open mind. so we'll see. jenna: we'll hold you a parking place out in denver, ed. >> reporter: i appreciate it.
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jenna: you and your producer, sarah. in the meantime, back to denver where we see the debate stage. that's where the two men are going to stand, not too far apart from each other. gregg: it's pretty close. jenna: and jim lehrer in that chair -- i don't know if that's him with his back to us, it could be. the university of denver, a huge situation for the city being that there's going to be a lot of traffic and a lot of activity. but in the meantime, this is a very important debate that kicks off a series of presidential debate, the first time these two men will face each other on the stage tomorrow night. gregg: right. a fox news alert, two u.s. border patrol agents are shot, one of them is dead near a remote drug smuggling route in southern arizona, and now that area -- as we speak -- flooded with agents on horseback and choppers in the air in the manhunt for the killer or killers. all of this taking place very close to a border station that was renamed in honor of agent
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brian terry whose murder was linked to the botched gun-running operation known as fast and furious. william la jeunesse joins us live from los angeles. william, what are you learning about this shooting? >> reporter: well, gregg, as you said, you've got deputies and agents, state and federal helicopters, the manhunt underway just north of naco, arizona. maybe a thousand people, mostly ranchers. it's about 100 miles southeast of tucson. the shooting occurred near state route 80 which connects to interstate 10 going east and west. that is why this is one of the most active drug-smuggling corridors in the u.s. consider the topography. you go from very flat desert immediately to about 10,000 feet of elevation. it's steep, rugged, hard to access forcing the border patrol to go on foot and horseback. now, we are told early this morning around 2 in the morning local time one of the thousands of sensors laid down by the border patrol went off. three agents responded. one agent on horseback was shot
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and killed, another airlifted to a nearby hospital with two gunshot wounds. he'll be fine. and a third agent was not hit. now, no id or age on the agent who was killed. they are typically armed with handguns and a rifle or shotgun. now, consider the cartel smuggler, they're usually armed with military-style assault weapons, an ak47, they have state of the art radios and spotters to give them realtime intel on where the border patrol is and is not as they run these drug shipments, mostly cocaine and marijuana. they have teams of backpackers will haul this stuff to a highway or suv hidden in the brush and off it goes. activity picks up, gregg, this time of year as temperatures drop from the 100s to about 85 right now during the day, and, of course, nighttime, cover of darkness when things get busy. right now no one in custody, no firearms recovered, the manhunt is underway.
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gregg? greg grg william la jeunesse, thanks. jenna: pennsylvania, a critical ruling by a judge blocking a voter id law in that state temporarily block this, this law. the law would have required voters to present a photo id when they cast their ballots on election day. now, that's not going to be required. eric shawn is here with more for us. >> reporter: jenna, opponents of voter id turned out this morning, and they got their wish. you do not need a photo id now to vote in the presidential election in pennsylvania in november, but the law will stand. commonwealth court judge robert simpson, who supported the law, did let the voter id law stay. he says poll workers can still, though, ask for a voter id, but voters don't have to show one when they show up in november. simpson blocked part of the law that requires people without an id to vote by provisional ballot and then provide documentation about their identity within six days. he feared that requirement could disenfranchise voters if they
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could not come up with the proof of their id. simpson ruled, quote: i question whether sufficient time now remains. i expected more photo ids to have been issued by this time for this reason. i accept petitioner's argument that in the remaining five weeks the gap between the photo ids issued and the estimated need will not be closed. opponents charged the law was aimed at preventing minorities and the elderly from voting. supporters say that's not true, and it could help stop voter fraud. out of more than eight million voters in the state, pennsylvania says over 759,000 don't have a voter id. but of those, just over 12,000 have received one. and they are being issued at a rate of about 200 a day. but both sides did see a victory in this ruling. deputy secretary of state shannon royier told us, quote, we are pleased that today's decision upholds pennsylvania voter id law. under today's ruling, voter id will be implemented on a different time frame. opponents also hailed the
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decision, the naacp commended it saying they hope workers do not wrongly enforce the law in november. happens to come on a day when early in-person voting has begun in ohio and florida. voters do not need to show a photo id to vote in ohio, they do need to show a photo id to vote in florida. and, of course, if you suspect voter fraud or problems at the polls where you live, we want to know about it. here is our address. voter fraud@foxnews.com. jenna? jenna: a story we'll continue to watch, eric, thank you. gregg: well, both candidates have a whole lot riding on tomorrow night's debate in denver, but governor mitt romney is the challenger debating a sitting president, so what will it take for him to win? our next guest coached governor romney during the primary debates. jenna: it'll be interesting to talk to him about that, some tips maybe. and historically just how much have debates meant when voters actually go to the polls? james rosen takes a closer look at the 1980 faceoff between
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jimmy carter and ronald reagan for a little perspective for us. gregg: plus, he earned a law degree, he passed the bar exam, but this young man came to the country when he was 9 years old and became an illegal immigrant. can the state deny him a law license because of his legal status? [ male announcer ] this is sheldo whose long day setting up the news
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gregg: welcome back to america's election headquarters, now, and a look at whether this 2012 race is resembling the presidential election of 1980. who can forget incumbent democratic president, jimmy carter, republican challenger, ronald reagan. from the economy to volatile events in the middle east, how some analysts are now comparing these two races. james rosen is in washington with more on that. hi, james. >> reporter: gregg, good afternoon. a fault line of sorts has emerged in gop and conservative
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circles over how similar the 2012 cob test is to that -- contest is to that of 1980. 32 years ago republican ronald reagan survived a primary battle and went on to defeat the incumbent democratic president, jimmy carter, by more than nine percentage points n. final week of october, carter was enjoying a lead up from four points the week before. then as now the democratic incumbent painted his gop challenger as a heartless tool of the rich, someone who couldn't be trusted with the world's most difficult job. among those seeing striking similarities between 2012 and 1980 is r. emmetter the ril, the founder and editor of "the american spectator." he argues in both cycles voters came and will come to see the poor performance of the economy as the decisive factor. >> i was alive in 1980, and i remember a failed president getting beaten in the last few days of the election. and that's what's going to
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happen this time around, a failed president is going to get beaten. though i think he's being beaten right now. >> reporter: carter and reagan debated only once that year, just a week before election day. reagan memorably used his closing statement to ask voters a series of questions; is it easier for you to go and buy things in the store than it was four years ago, is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago, is america respected throughout the world as it was? still, the media environment in which presidential campaigns take place today is dramatically different from 1980. back then, by the way, a third-party candidate, independent john anderson, captured 7% of the vote. governor reagan also had held the lead for long stretches of the 1980 context according to gallup, something that mitt romney has not matched today, and there is nothing quite like the iranian hostage crisis hovering over president obama's head today, and he enjoys approval ratings some 13 points higher than president carter did in the fall of 1980.
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gregg and jenna? gregg: james rosen in washington, thanks. jenna: in the meantime, the candidates getting ready for tomorrow's big debate in denver. some folks say the president's going to have several advantages including his personal style that's described as low key, in fact, in the past the president's been called no drama obama because of that cool style. what about mitt romney, though? bill o'reilly offering up his advice this morning on fox and friends. take a listen. >> what romney should be doing right now is watching ronald reagan take apart jimmy carter. now, with this caveat; president obama much quicker than jimmy carter, much. however, the way reagan did it was authoritative but kind of folksy. you've got to take the edge off a little bit -- >> no. >> but you've got to be a little bold and fresh out there. but you've got to do it with more of a twinkle in your eye. if he shows malice, he'll lose.
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jenna: we'll see what our next guest thinks about that. it's one of governor romney's former debate coaches, brett o'donnell. he's the president of donnell and associates. in addition to coaching governor romney, he's worked with senator john mccain and president george w. bush. nice to have you on the program. >> good to be with you. jenna: for some of our viewers, how does one become an expert debate coach? did you start out on the debate team in high school? how did you become a coach? >> well, you know, i was in the right place at the right time. i didn't debate until i got to college, and then i decided to make debate a career. i coached for 18 years at liberty university and happened to meet karl rove. i knew that they had, that john kerry was using bob shrum as their debate coach and said to karl rove, you need a debate coach for the president, and he hired me. and that was my first job in politics, was coaching president bush. jenna: fascinating, karl rove surfaces again somewhere out there. >> with the mastermind of all.
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[laughter] jenna: you know, i didn't ever participate in the debate team. one of the things i did was play sports, and you watch game tape, right? you watch a lot of film. we just showed film of reagan and carter, and i'm curious, do can you as a coach show film, tape of past debates? do you use that as part of your teaching mechanism? >> absolutely. you know, debaters are really kind of failed athletes at heart, so we show them game film. they take the same kind of preparation that an athlete does. there's really three things you have to do to prepare a good political debater. the first is they have to know the issues, they have to know their position on the issues, and they have to know the other person's position on the issues. the second thing, you have to have a strategy. it's just like a playbook for a football game. you've got to have a strategy you're going to execute in the debate. and then the final thing, like a good athlete, your political debater has to be mentally prepared, and that's really what they're probably doing now in
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both camps is getting the candidates sort of mentally tough and ready for the challenges they're going to face tomorrow night. jenna: i think both mitt romney and the president might take issue with being described as failed athletes. [laughter] maybe not now that they're in a new career. there's so many comparisons made between romney and reagan right now, i'm just curious, does romney have to be the second coming of ronald reagan in these debates to win? >> no. i don't think he has to be the second coming of ronald reagan. he has to be mitt romney. but the thing he has to do is what ronald reagan did. ronald reagan in the 1980 debates pinned the economy on jimmy carter, and he kept litigating the case that jimmy carter had made every american's life worse. because of his failed economic policies. governor romney has to do exactly the same thing. he has to make the debate about the president's failed policies on the economy and convince voters that it was those policies that's made their lives a lot worse over these last four
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years rather than let the president blame earthquakes or the, you know, president bush or the tsunami or anything. jenna: i have some questions about style versus substance, big questions about likability. we're going to take a quick commercial break and be right back with you for some more tips on debating, right after this. h. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together.
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jenna: brett o'donnell is giving us a behind the scenes look on the debate prep as he has been a coach of mitt romney, john mccain and president bush, among others. it's interesting that ed henry just shared with us a voter that he talked to in nevada that said, listen, i'm a democrat, but i really am open to a mitt romney as president if i could get some specifics. so how do you get, how does mitt romney get specific without
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being too wonky, too boring and too rigid? >> well, you know, i think that voter when they say they're looking for specifics, they're looking for governor romney's vision for where he would lead the country and why that vision would be better than the path that we're on right now under president obama. i think if governor romney stays at the, you know, at the visionary level where he offers a better path forward, then i think that'll answer voters' concerns. i don't think he has to get into specific policy. he does need to be able to defend some of the economic policies that he's put forward, but i think he needs to really more than that advance a vision for the country, and the difference in philosophy of the role of government in shaping the economy and more importantly in the lives of every american. jenna: so you're saying bigger picture, romney needs to go big picture, share his vision. would that also help him on the likability side? we continue to hear, hey, this is all about likability, this is a vote that many people make with their heart, not
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necessarily with their mind? >> i absolutely think it would. i think, first of all, if he's able to pin blame for the economy on the president, governor romney's numbers will start to come up. it's a teetertotter. if the president goes down, governor romney's goes up. because voters have to make a choice, and governor romney will start to be the better alternative. and then if he offers a clear vision of where he would take the country, then i think that sort of squares -- it completes what he needs to do in terms of shaping the debate for voters to be able to choose him as the, as a viable alternative. jenna: and you say we'll know within the first 30, maybe 40 minutes of this debate about -- >> they're the most important, absolutely. jenna: hopefully, we tune in for everything because, you know, it's a big night. very interesting insight, thank you very much. >> good to be with you. jenna: the only place to watch the entire debate is right here, your election headquarters. coverage and full analysis. tomorrow night at 8:55 on fox
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news. that's brett thanking our producers as well. gregg: he was great. terrific. we are your election headquarters, and with just more than a month until the big day, we're taking a closer look at the key battleground states that could actually decide the race for the white house, and today nevada voters in the silver state have picked the winner in all of the last eight presidential elections. so we certainly want to look at nevada. all of the yellow states are the battleground swing states. let's take a look at the economy in nevada. 12.1% unemployment, that is the highest in the nation for the last 30 consecutive months. the average price of a gallon of gas doubled since the president took office, look at this foreclosure rate, one in 402. that's the fifth highest in the nation. and the president has visited six times, mitt romney four times. population almost three million. electoral votes, six out of 270. the republican governor, brian
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sandoval, and a major industry is tourism and entertainment. i thought we had the latest poll average, here it is up on the screen. um, this is an average by real clear politics of a bunch of polls. the president almost at 50%, governor mitt romney at 44.5%. elizabeth crumb join us, co-anchor of the agenda, a daily political talk show. thanks for being with us, elizabeth. it would seem as though the housing crisis in your state, not to mention the incredibly high unemployment rate, would actually favor the challenger, mitt romney. true? >> well, you would think so in conventional wisdom, it would certainly say so. but if you look at the polls throughout the summer really but even most recently in september, most of them do lean president obama's way, and so i think there's a question in nevada as to whether voters believe that mitt romney's got a better plan for fixing what ails nevada than
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simply staying the course with president obama. greg greg as i understand it, the demographics favor the president. is he counting on hispanic votes to carry him through? >> absolutely. that's a big part of the picture here. hispanics now make up about 27 percent of the population in nevada. we've really seen those numbers grow over the past ten years according to the census. turnout expected to be anywhere from 15-17%, and if the democrats can turn out hispanics in those higher numbers and hispanics in nevada by most polls' estimation are leaning towards the president by about 70%, that'll definitely be a key to the win here. gregg: and there's a sizable mormon population, and, you know, the betting money is that governor mitt romney is sort of counting on that. but isn't he also counting on a republican party that has really been energy eyesed from the campaigning he did there during the primaries? >> well, you'd think so, but one
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of the keys, gregg, that's going on right here is the voter registration drive. so it's not just about, you know, enthusiasm as people sit on their couches, it's about who's registering voters, and who's going to turn them out. the democrats are up by six percentage points now in statewide voter registration, so the enthusiasm of the republicans, however strong it may be, doesn't seem to be translating into registration anyhow. gregg: i know you guys have been carpet bombed with ads, and it's going to continue. thanks very much for being with us. >> thanks for having me. jenna: he's an eagle scout, high school valedictorian and a law school grad but so far he can't practice law because he came into this country illegally. should he will able to get his law license? the high court case that could have an impact all across the nation. our legal panel takes up the case. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?
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gregg: right now before florida's supreme court, the case that could have a far-reaching impact well beyond the sunshine state. at issue, whether this man -- a law school grad who passed the bar exam -- can be granted a law license despite being an illegal immigrant. now, lis wiehl joins us, fox news legal analyst, esther -- [inaudible] joining us, a criminal defense attorney. lis, this guy's a terrific kid. >> right. gregg: he's a man now, but he came as a 9-year-old legally with his participant, they
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overstayed their visa. he was an eagle scout, he was actually high school valedictorian, goes to law school, passes the bar. how is making him lawyer, allowing him to be a lawyer somehow undermining the justice system? >> el, i don't take away anything from what he did. i believe you, i mean, eagle scout and all that, but there's this little thing, and i'm just looking at one right now because a student of mine is asking me to sign off on this. you have to sign off on good moral character. in california, i'll read you a florida law as well. in california it includes qualities of honesty, fairness, candor, trustworthiness and observance of a fiduciary respondent. if you're here illegally, i have a problem with fitting you in that good moral character. and the same in florida. you have disqualifying conduct not just if you're unlawfully here, that's one big thing. fraud, deceit or
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misrepresentation. gregg: yeah. want to put it up on the screen, i looked it up. it is the rule in florida, this is part of the rule, what is that, 3-11, and it baseically says, esther, a record manifesting lack of honesty, trut worthiness, and go to the big print down below, there you see it, unlawful conduct -- well, that's unlawful conduct -- acts involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit and abuse of the legal product. isn't that exactly what this would-be lawyer did? >> no, it's absolutely nothing about what he did. gregg: really? did he break the law? >> he did not break the law. gregg: of course he did, he's here illegally. that's breaking the law. >> no, no, no. wait, he was -- he did not commit the crime. you are now trying to attempt to put the sins of the father onto the son. gregg: it is a nonspent crime for the child. it is, nevertheless, a crime. >> gregg, there are misdeme
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plants who become members of the florida. i have no criminal record, but i would welcome someone like him. florida recognizes it needs diversity which is why they didn't deny him an application and, in fact, there was nothing disqualifying him for his good moral character and fitness. >> but maybe -- >> at this point -- >> maybe they didn't know. >> no, no, no. this is not a case where he has hidden anything. he has been straightforward the entire time. one of the requirements in florida is honesty, and, in fact, when you apply, they tell you we would rather know something bad and get it out of the way. gregg: right. lis -- >> that's kind of a big, bad thing. gregg: what do you make of the argument that when he became an adult and he knew he was breaking the law by being here, he could have gone to mexico arguably? >> he could have come back here and tried to get u.s. citizenship the right way, and
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then i would have no problem with this. the problem is we do, you know, all lawyer jokes aside, we really do try to hold our lawyers to a will hitting bit of a high regard in this country, that you are abiding by the law, that you are going to obey the law. if a climate is coming to me -- a client is coming to me and i'm looking at a lawyer that broke the law, isn't that a double standard? gregg: yeah. executive order essentially granting deferred action which means a guy like this can't be deported. he applied for a work permit but, esther, that's only a temporary work permit. a license to practice is permanent. therein is a big difference. >> no. the license to practice is a privilege, it's not a right. it can be taken away from you at any point if you violate or continue to violate the law. i would say, and i think you all are overstepping in saying that you have to be a perfect human being in order to be a lawyer. >> no. >> clearly, we're all human. but in florida you can have, you
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could have problems in your past and still be a qualified lawyer. >> i don't have a problem with, i don't have a problem with people not being perfect or having problems in their past, but going a criminal going into the process before you even have that opportunity of getting that law license, that's where i think it's a stretch. gregg: well, a nonintent crime. >> removing a lot of lawyers from the process. a lot of good people. and by the way, he is a valedictorian, as you said, eagle scout -- >> all that, that's great. >> he is living the american dream, and he should be applauded and not punished. gregg: rester, lis, thank you. jenna: you're a lawyer, anything you'd like to share with us about your criminal past? gregg: no, i'm clean. [laughter] they wiped it all from my record. jenna: it's a very interesting case. we'll continue to watch that one. in the meantime, one day, two crashes for amtrak. a chaotic scene as one train hits a big rig and derails, another train hitting another
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truck several miles away. plus, bad enough when you're jammed into a seat at 30,000 feet. haven't we all been there? now some seats on american airlines' planes are coming loose during the flight. >> i think the faa needs to look at this incident, i think the aircraft owners and leaseholders need to look at this incident, and they need to get with american airlines' management and see what's going on. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol
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jenna: well, american airlines grounding eight of its jets after a row of passenger seats came loose on three recent flights. this has happened over the last couple days. the airline says the seats were not properly locked into tracks on the author of their 757s. the airline is already under some pressure as it gets ready to lay off thousands of workers as part of a bankruptcy plan. take a listen. >> american airlines operates the oldest fleet in america. as your car gets older, it requires more maintenance. as our aircraft get older, it
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requires more maintenance. and not just pilots can write up an aircraft. right now the american airlines has issued several thousand furlough notices, so it's closed an entire maintenance base in oklahoma. so now you have a very demoralized maintenance crew. the maintenance people are also allowed to make write-ups, and so are the crew chiefs. jenna: the faa is investigating, and we wanted to do a little reporting ourselves. john gulia is a former member of the national transportation safety board, also a former airline mechanic. also joining us on the phone is rob mark, he's a commercial pilot and edits an industry-wide blog, covers everything called jet whine.com. but first to you, john. as a mechanic, a former mechanic, have you ever heard of this happening before? has this happened when been -- when you've been working? >> yes, it has happened before. seats usually don't get written
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up as rocking in the track, but they wiggle, and the flight attendants will usually tell the crew, and they'll write 'em up. but to have them come loose is very, very unusual and unsafe. jenna: john, one of the things we're actually looking at, we have live pictures at logan airport in boston. american airlines employees are checking seats on two aircrafts right now. you say you're very dangerous. what could happen if your seat comes loose during a flight? >> well, it would be the same as having a passenger there without a seat belt in tech lens. -- turbulence. that passenger becomes a flying object in the cabin. and also the same thing that happens to children that are not in their own seat in turbulence. if a mother is holding her child under 2 years old if her lap and you hit turbulence, the child becomes a flying object in the cabin, and we could have other passengers injured because you have a 10-pound object bouncing
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around inside the cabin. jenna: that's a scary thought. as we continue to take in some of these live pictures, rob, one of the questions we have, and that's why i asked john about whether or not he's ever heart of this happening before is whether or not this is a problem because, listen, we're flying around planes that are older, or it's a problem specific to american airlines and something to do with their maintenance, rob. what are your thoughts on that? >> well, having lived through an airline bankruptcy when i flew for midway, i can just tell you that when a bankruptcy happens, things fall through the cracks. i'm not going to, you know, pin the poor people for the, you know, one incident like we've seen here, but the problem is that things just fall through the cracks. and as i mentioned to somebody earlier, we don't know what kind of pressure those folks are getting from american airlines. are they being told to cut back on staff and to get thing done more quickly, and it's all kinds
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of bits and pieces like that that can really add pressure that can make somebody just skip something or perhaps miss something that they normally would never do. jenna: well, rob -- >> you know, you raise an interesting -- jenna: let me just jump in here, rob. john, i'll be to you in just a second, but as smart consumers, rob, should we not fly airlines when they're going through a bankruptcy because as you describe, there can be a lot of things that can happen. is this something that maybe as consumers we avoid american airlines for a while? >> well, i think anybody from american is going to tell you that the airline is operating perfectly safe. but, of course, as we all know the reason they're in bankruptcy is that they're, you know, they have more debt than they have in revenue. for whatever reason. there's a variety of reasons for that. but, you know, should we avoid it? well, i think everybody that's there is still dedicated to doing the best job that they possibly can, but in the case of let's say what we've seen with the pilots writing up all kinds
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of little bits and pieces that normally they would normally have just kind of ignored, i think they're saying, look, you know, we've cut back as much as we can, and we can't cut back anymore. and so i think passengers need to at least be aware of what's going on in a situation like that. jenna: interesting. we're seeing some seats being carried out, not sure if those were being brought in or taken out of a plane, but these workers are, again, inspecting some seats in boston. john, you had some thoughts on what rob had to say? >> yes. the disruption in the workplace is what we're talking about in a bankruptcy and when you start furloughing employees. and at that point in time, that actually raises the burden on the management of the airline and also the oversight burden on the part of the faa. and i know the faa often times assumes that the management of an airline is doing the right thing and watching, but under situations like we have here today, the faa should have an
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additional presence on the property insuring that the work that's being done is being done in accordance with the proper procedures. and american needs additional management personnel to oversee the work that's being done, especially if it is outsourced. jenna: just so our viewers know, that's part of the story, apparently, that some of the maintenance work is being outsource today a contracting company, so there's finger pointing going on between management, the unions the outsourced company. there's just a lot happening in this one story, so it's one we're going to continue to follow. john and rob, thank you very much for your expertise today. we appreciate it. >> you're welcome. >> thank you for having me. jenna: and we'll continue with the live picture of the american airlines plane in boston. gregg: coming up, the inspirational story of a former baseball player seriously injured during his very first game, getting a second shot at the big time.
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gregg: just seven years after his dream of playing for the major leagues was crushed, a former outfielder seriously injured during his debut with the chicago cubs is finally getting a second shot even if for just one night. steve harrigan is live outside the miami marlins' ballpark. steve? >> reporter: gregg, a remarkable comeback story we're likely to see unfold tonight. seven years ago adam greenberg was a 24-year-old outfielder for the cubs. on the first pitch of his first major league at bat he was struck by a fast ball traveling at 92 miles an hour. he was hit just under the helmet in the back of the head. here's how adam described that plow. >> turned to get out of the way, but unfortunately, i didn't get out of the way enough, and it caught right up under my helmet, so it made direct contact with my skull, and i felt like my head split open. grabbed my head immediately, i thought i was holding it
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together because it really felt like it submit, and i was just -- split, and i was just pretty scared. >> reporter: for some time after that, adam suffered double vision, he was sent down to the minors and struggled there for some time in the minor leagues. now tonight he gets his shot back with the miami marlins. he signed a one-day contract, and really the motivation has come from a fan who's also a film maker who said he got the idea after watching a movie. >> i was watching "field of dreams" with my wife, and she brought up the character moonlight graham. she felt sorry for him, and i'm like, moonlight graham? monolight gramm has nothing on adam greenberg. she started asking me a few questions, and i realized, wait a minute, adam's only 29, 30 years old. i want to see what type of shape he's in. and he was still playing with the bluefish, so i thought, you know, he can still play. >> reporter: now, technically, according to major league baseball rules, seven years ago
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adam greenberg had a plate appearance. but because he was hit by a pitched ball, he did not get an official major league at bat. he should get that tonight. the manager here says he may start greenberg in the first inning against the melts. back to you. -- against the mets. jenna: back to boston where we show you what's happening again with these american airline planes. those seats being taken out of two planes on the ground after some questions are raised about seats becoming loose on different planes while in the air. more on that story on fox news throughout the day today.
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[ "the odd couple" theme playing ]
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jenna: a big night tomorrow night the first presidential debate. rick will tell where you to watch it. i have a couple of guest ez,. >> fox news channel of course your election headquarters. the debate is live, prime-time coverage hosted by brett and megyn at 8:55 tomorrow night. harrisau

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